DENVER — Panned for a lackluster debate performance, President Barack Obama set out Thursday to retool and reinvigorate his campaign as Republicans claimed a new opening.

Obama offered a mocking recap of the debate, recounting that the Mitt Romney he’d squared off with the night before bore little resemblance to the one who’s been running for president the last two years.

“The real Mitt Romney said we don’t need any more teachers in our classrooms, but the fellow on stage last night, he loves teachers, can’t get enough of ’em,” Obama told a rally on the heavily Democratic west side of Denver on Thursday,

“The Mitt Romney we all know invested in companies that were called pioneers of outsourcing jobs to other countries. But the guy on stage last night … never heard of tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas,” the president said.

Obama’s quick rebound — a jovial and feisty performance that his supporters would love to have seen during the debate itself — came as Republicans rejoiced over what they saw as a reset moment for Romney’s struggling campaign. Viewers and pundits largely agreed that Romney dominated the incumbent, and his supporters predicted it would open the door for voters to flee a president whose performance on the economy has them disappointed.

Most Democrats didn’t dispute that Obama had a bad night, but they voiced confidence that he would remain ahead with key parts of the electorate, especially in the increasingly important battleground states that will decide the election.

“They’re getting an earful,” said Sen. Mark Udall, a Colorado Democrat, of Obama’s campaign team. “He’ll come out with a stronger set of punches in the next debates and on the stump.”

Romney took a victory lap before a conservative group in Colorado before going on to campaign with his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, in Virginia, one of those close states where polls show his campaign needs a spark.

The debate “was a great opportunity for the American people to see two very different visions for the country,” Romney told the Colorado crowd. “I saw the president’s vision as trickle-down government, and I don’t think that’s what America believes in.”

Obama supporters

About 12,000 or so supporters came to cheer Obama under a chilly gray sky, the Rockies in the distance. Many were openly glum about his debate performance, even as they remained upbeat about his chances of winning re-election.

“I was disappointed with the lack of fire in my candidate,” said Pixie Corson, 57, a retired special education teacher.

She likened the debate to a bad driver’s license photo: You’re stuck with it, but it’s only a moment in time and you can get over it. “Next week we’ll be right back,” she said. “We’re fine.”

Romney aides taunted that the president was flailing in a desperate effort to regain his footing.

“In full damage-control mode, President Obama today offered no defense of his record and no vision for the future,” said Romney spokesman Ryan Williams.

“He did a very theatrically aggressive performance,” the president’s top strategist, David Plouffe, said of Romney. “Is that going to change minds in places like Ohio, Nevada, and Virginia? … Is he going to take the lead in Ohio? If he doesn’t, he’s not going to be president.”

Like many Obama supporters, Ben Jordan, from Aurora, Colo., thought the president was “very aggressive” at Thursday’s rally — and couldn’t fathom why he didn’t bring that same passion to the debate, when the audience was in the tens of millions.

In particular, he found it inexplicable that Obama failed to bring up Romney’s recently uncovered comment asserting that 47 percent of Americans are moochers who view themselves as “victims” deserving of government handouts.

“I’m the 47 percent,” said Jordan, 64, who said that although he pays federal income tax — which would otherwise disqualify him from the category — he collects a pension as a disabled veteran, and retirement pay after a decades-long career at a federal agency.

“I don’t know why the president didn’t bring that up,” Jordan said.

Looking ahead

Obama senior adviser David Axelrod said that the president chose to avoid slinging insults and to stick to the questions that were asked, “not to get into serial fact-checking with Governor Romney, which can be an exhausting, never-ending pursuit.”

He called it natural to recalibrate for the next debate, on Oct. 16.

“I’m sure that we will make adjustments. I don’t see us adding huge amounts of additional prep time. I think there are some strategic changes that have to be made, and we’ll make them,” he said.

Udall noted that four of the last five presidents fell short or lost outright in the first debates of their re-election campaigns, and he suggested that Obama was rusty and not fully prepared.

“The president’s got many jobs,” he said. “Governor Romney has one, being a candidate.”

Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, who has been playing Obama in Romney’s mock debates, said the GOP nominee is sure to get a second look now from many voters — perhaps enough to expand the number of states in which Romney can compete.

“Nationally, this race is very close,” he said. “I’m not suggesting that the polls will immediately change and that you’ll see in Pennsylvania or Michigan or Wisconsin an immediate change. But I think you’ll see people starting to listen more to what Mitt Romney’s laying out for the next four years.

Axelrod argued that a good debate for Romney doesn’t automatically translate into voter support. It’s easier to deliver a good performance, he said, when you’re willing to conceal key details of controversial policies.

“Much of it was rooted in deception,” Axelrod said. “He may win the Oscar for his performance last night, but he is not going to win the presidency for his performance last night.”

At the Denver rally, Johanna Holy Elk Face, 60, an American Indian voter, said Obama seemed overly cautious in the debate.

“He was more like just listening to what Romney was saying, and not competing,” she said.

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